Walking In The Light And Washed In The Blood
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 3, 1865,
BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us
from all sin." 1 John 1:7.
THERE are two great powers in conflict in this world. One is the power
of good, of which God is the King and the other is the power of evil,
which is represented by the Prince of the power of the air, Satan. The
first principle is set forth by John under the figure of light. God
himself is essential Light and everything which is good in the world is
an emanation from Himself. "Every good gift and every perfect gift is
from above and comes down from the Father of Lights, with whom is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning."
The light is the evident emblem of the Truth of God. Darkness is the
symbol of error. Light represents holiness. Darkness is the appropriate
figure for sin. Light represents knowledge, especially of spiritual
things, since light reveals. Darkness is the fit token of the ignorance
under which the natural mind labors perpetually. By nature we are all
born under the dominion of darkness–we grope our way like blind men
and when we knew God by the light of His works, we glorified Him not as
God, neither were thankful, but became vain in our imaginations and our
foolish heart was darkened.
Naturally, spiritual things are not discernible by man–they are
spiritual and spiritually discerned and the carnal mind cannot perceive
them–for it walks in darkness. The guilt of sin is a thing too high
for the carnal mind to understand. The glory of the eternal sacrifice
it cannot perceive. The excellence of God, the faithfulness of His
promise and the validity of His Covenant–all such things as these are
swathed in mist–the carnal mind sees them not. As soon as ever the
Grace of God comes into the heart, it makes as great a difference as
did the eternal fiat of Jehovah, when He said, "Let there be light,"
and there was light.
As soon as God the Holy Spirit begins to work upon the soul of man to
illuminate him, he perceives at once his own sinfulness. He abhors that
sinfulness, he labors to escape from it, he cries out for a remedy–he
finds it in Christ– therefore he no longer loves sin, he is not guided
any longer by the darkness of policy and selfishness and error, but he
walks after the light of the Truth of God, of righteousness, of
holiness, of true knowledge. God has brought him into light–he sees
now what he never saw before! He knows, feels, believes, recognizes
what he never had known anything of before–he is in the light.
Therefore you constantly find the Christian called a child of light and
he is warned that he is of the light and of the day. He is told, "You
are not of the night nor of darkness." "You were sometime darkness, but
now are you light in the Lord: walk as children of light." You perceive
in the text, then, that the Christian is spoken of as a man who is in
the light. But there is something more said of him than this. He is
practically in the light, "if we walk in the light." It is of no use to
pretend to have light in the brain–so as to comprehend all knowledge,
so as to be sound and orthodox in one's doctrinal opinions–this will
be of no vital service so far as the great point of salvation is
concerned.
A man may think he has much light, but if it is only notional and
doctrinal and is not the light which enlightens his nature and develops
itself in his practical walk, he lies when he talks of being in the
light, for he is in darkness altogether. Nor is it truthful to pretend
or profess that we have light within in the form of experience if we do
not walk in it, for where the light is true, it is quite certain to
show itself abroad.
If there is a candle within the lantern, its light will stream forth
into the surrounding darkness and those who have eyes will be able to
see it. I have no right to say I have light unless I walk in it. The
Apostle is very peremptory with those who so speak. He says, "He that
says I know Him and keeps not His Commandments is a liar and the truth
is not in him." The Christian, then, is in the light and he is
practically in it–his walk and conversation are regulated by the Truth
of
God, by holiness–and by that Divine knowledge which God has been
pleased to bestow upon him. He walks in the light of faith, in another
path than that which is trod by men who have nothing but the light of
sense. He sees Him who is invisible and the sight of the invisible God
operates upon his soul.
He looks into eternity, he marks the dread reward of sin and the
blessed gift of God to those who trust in Jesus and eternal realities
have an effect upon his whole manner and conversation–from now on he
is a man in the light, walking in that light. There is a very strong
description given here–"If we walk in the light as He is in the
light." Beloved, the thought of that dazzles me! I have tried to look
it in the face, but I cannot endure it. If we walk in the light as God
is in the light! Can we ever attain to this? Shall poor flesh and blood
ever be able to walk as clearly in the light as He is whom we call "Our
Father," of whom it is written, "God is light and in Him is no darkness
at all"?
Let us say this much and then commend this wonderful expression to your
meditations. Certainly this is the model which is set before us, for
the Savior Himself said, "Be you perfect, even as your Father who is in
Heaven is perfect." And if we take anything short of absolute
perfection as our model of life we shall certainly, even if we should
attain to our ideal, fall short of the Glory of God! Beloved, when a
schoolmaster writes the copy at the head of the page, he does not
expect that the boy will come up to the copy–but then, if the copy is
not a perfect one, it is not fit to be imitated by a child.
And so our God gives us Himself as the pattern and copy, "Be you
imitators of God as dear children," for nothing short of Himself would
be a worthy model. Though we, as life sculptors, may feel that we can
never rival the perfection of God, yet we are to seek after it and
never to be satisfied until we attain it. The youthful artist, as he
grasps his early pencil, can hardly hope to equal Raphael or
Michelangelo! But still, if he did not have a noble ideal before his
mind, he would only attain to something very mean and ordinary.
Heavenly fingers point us to the Lord Jesus as the great Exemplar of
His people and the Holy Spirit works in us a likeness to Him.
But what does it mean that the Christian is to walk in light as God is
in the light? We conceive it to import likeness, but not degree. We are
as truly in the light. We are as heartily in the light. We are as
sincerely in the light, as honestly in the light, though we cannot be
there in the same degree. I cannot dwell in the sun–it is too bright a
place for my residence–unless I shall be transformed, like Uriel,
Milton's angel who could dwell in the midst of the blaze of its
excessive glory. But I can walk in the light of the sun though I cannot
dwell in it. And so God is the Light, He is Himself the Sun and I can
walk in the light as He is in the light, though I cannot attain to the
same degree of perfection and excellence and purity and truth in which
the Lord, Himself, resides.
Trapp is always giving us the Truth of God in a way in which we can
remember it–so he says we are to be in the light as God is in the
light for quality, but not for equality. We are to have the same light
and as truly to have it and walk in it as God does, though as for
equality with God in His holiness and perfection–that must be left
until we cross the Jordan and enter into the perfection of the Most
High.
Having thus briefly sketched the character of the genuine Christian,
observe, Beloved, that he is the possessor of two privileges. The first
is fellowship with God. "We have fellowship one with another." And the
second is complete cleansing from sin–"and the blood of Jesus Christ,
His Son, cleanses us from all sin." The first privilege we will have
but a word upon–it is fellowship with God. As you read this verse in
our translation, it looks very much as if all that was meant was
fellowship with your brother Christians. But this, according to able
critics, would not convey the sense of the original.
The Arabic version renders it, "God with us and we with Him," and
several copies read, "we have fellowship with Him." Our version almost
compels you to think of fellowship with other Believers, but such is
not the intention of the Spirit. "We have mutual fellowship–between
God and our souls there is communion." This is the sense of the
passage. God is Light–we walk in light–we agree. "Can two walk
together unless they are agreed?" It is clear we are agreed as to the
principles which we shall advance–God is the champion of Truth, so are
we. God is the promoter of holiness, so are we. God seeks that love may
reign instead of selfishness, so does the Christian. God hates error
and spares no arrows to destroy it. The Christian also contends
earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.
God is pure, and the pure in heart shall see God. God is holiness and
those who are holy are attracted to God from an affinity of nature,
even as the needle is attracted to its pole. If the Lord has visited
you and made you to walk in light, you shall surely have fellowship
with God your Father. He that is in darkness cannot have fellowship
with God. Veiled in ignorance, guided by passion, controlled by error,
led astray by falsehood–how can you aspire to talk with your God? Your
prayer is but a chattering sound! Your song is the clang of a sounding
brass, the noise of a tinkling cymbal! Your devotion bears you no
further than the letter which kills!
But oh, poor Soul, if God should take you out of your darkness and make
you to see yourself, to see Him and follow after Truth and
righteousness and holiness, why then your prayer would be heard in
Heaven, your song would mingle with the sweet notes of celestial harps
and even your groans and tears would reach your Father's heart, for you
would enjoy fellowship with Him! If we walk with God as God is in the
light, the secret of God is with us and our secret is with God. He
opens His heart to us and we open our heart to Him–we become friends!
We are bound and knit together so that being made partakers of the
Divine Nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world
through lust, we live like Enoch, having our conversation above the
skies.
Upon the second privilege we intend to dwell. I have been driven to
this text and yet I have been afraid of it. This text has been handled,
the latter part of it, I mean, very often out of its context. Yet it
has had such a comforting influence on many souls that I have been half
afraid to discourse upon it in its true context. And yet I have felt,
"Well, if anything I should say should take away any comfort from any
seeking soul, I shall be very sorry, but I cannot help it." I do feel
that it is essential to the Christian ministry not to pick passages out
of God's Word and rend them away from the context, but to take them as
they stand.
As this text stands, it does not seem to me to gleam with the
particular ray of comfort which others see in it, but it has another
beam of joy even more radiant! God's Word must be taken as God speaks
it–we have no right to divide the living child of Divine Truth, or
wrest it to make it mean other than it does. According to the text,
special pardon of sin is the peculiar privilege of those who walk in
the light as God is in the light and it is not the privilege of anyone
else. Only those who have been brought by Divine Grace from a state of
nature into a state of Grace and walk in the light may claim the
possession of perfect cleansing through the blood of Jesus Christ.
In dwelling upon this latter part of the verse, there seemed to me to
be seven things in it which any thoughtful reader would be struck with.
Considered as the privilege of every man who, however limpingly, is
walking in the light, this word, which tells of pardon bought with
blood, is very precious–a crown set with jewels! To seven choice
pearls I invite your loving gaze.
1. The first thing that struck me was THE GREATNESS of everything in
the text. In some places everything is little. You talk with some
men–their thoughts, their ideas are all little. Almost everything is
drawn to a scale and aspiring minds generally draw their matters to as
great a scale as they can find, but that is necessarily a little one.
See to what a magnificent scale everything is drawn in our text! Think,
Beloved, how great the sin of God's people is! Will you try and get
that thought into your minds? How great is your own sin–your sin
before conversion–think that over! Your sin while seeking the Lord in
putting confidence in your own works and looking after refuges of lies.
Your sins since conversion–turn them over.
Beloved, one sin towers up like an Alp! But we have many sins heaped
upon each other, as in the old fable of the giants who piled Pelion
upon Ossa, mountain upon mountain! O God, what an aggregate of sin is
there in the life of one of Your most pure and most sanctified
children! Multiply this. All the sin of one child of God–multiply it
by the number of those contained in that word "us." "Cleanses us from
all sin! How many are God's children? God's Word shall answer. "A
multitude that no man can number, out of all kindreds and peoples and
tongues, stood before the Throne." Can you imagine–deep as Hell's
bottomless pit! High as Heaven's own Glory–for sin sought to pluck
even God out of His Throne! Wide as the east is from the west! Long as
eternity is this great mass of the guilt of the people for whom Christ
shed His blood! And yet all this is taken away! "The blood of Jesus
Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin."
Then observe the greatness of the Atonement offered. Will you inwardly
digest those words, "the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son"? Blood is at
all times precious, but this is no blood of a mere man–it is the blood
of an innocent Man! Better still, it is the blood of Man in union with
Deity–"His Son!" God's Son! Why, angels cast their crowns before Him!
All the choral symphonies of Heaven surround His glorious Throne. "God
over all, blessed forever. Amen." And yet He yields His blood! He takes
upon Himself the form of a servant and then is scourged and pierced,
bruised and torn and at last slain–for nothing but the blood of Deity
could make atonement for human sin!
The Atonement must be no man, merely–He must be the God-Man Mediator,
the Fellow of Jehovah, co-equal and co-eternal with Him–He must bear
the pangs and bitterness of Divine wrath which was due to sin. Think of
this–a sacrifice which no human mind can ever properly estimate in the
infinity of its value! Here, indeed, we have greatness– great sin, but
a great Atonement! Think again–we have here great love which provided
such a Sacrifice. Oh, how He must have loved, to have descended from
Heaven to earth and from earth to the grave! How He must have loved, to
have chosen us, when we were hating Him–when we were enemies! He has
reconciled us unto God by His own death!
Dead in trespasses and sins, corrupt–wrapped up in the cerements of
evil habits, hateful and hating one another, full of sin and every
abomination–yet He loved us so as to yield up His soul unto death for
us. We are dealing with great things here, indeed, and we must not
forget the greatness of the influence which such an Atonement, the
result of such love, must have upon the Christian's heart. Oh, the
greatness of the peace which passes all understanding, which flows from
this great Atonement! Oh, the greatness of the gratitude which must
blaze forth from such a sacred fire as this! Oh, the greatness of the
hatred of sin, of the revenge against iniquity which must spring from a
sense of such love, when it is shed abroad in the heart!
You are citizens enjoying no mean privilege, oh, you blood-bought
citizens of a blood-bought city! God has loved you. You cannot, though
I should allot you a whole lifetime–you cannot get to the depth of
that love God has loved you and to prove His love He has died in the
Person of man for you. He loves you and has overcome the dread result
of all your fearful sin! And now, by the love which God has manifested,
we do pray you let your holiness, your truthfulness and your zeal prove
that you understand the greatness of those things. If your heart can
really conceive the greatness of the things here revealed–the great
sin, the great Savior offering Himself out of great love that He might
make you to be greatly privileged–I am sure your hearts will rejoice!
2. The next thing which sparkles in the text is its SIMPLE
SOLITARINESS–"We have fellowship one with another." And then it is
added as a simple, gloriously simple statement, "the blood of Jesus
Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin." Observe there is nothing
said about rites and ceremonies. It does not begin by saying, "and the
waters of Baptism, together with the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son,
cleanses us." Not a word, whether it shall be the sprinkling in
infancy, or immersion of Believers–nothing is said about it–it is the
blood, the blood only, without a drop of baptismal water!
Nothing is here said about sacraments–what some call "the blessed
Eucharist," is not dragged in here–nothing about eating bread and
drinking wine! It is the blood, nothing but the blood–"the blood of
Jesus Christ, His Son." And if nothing is said of rites that God has
given, rites that man has invented are equally excluded. Not a syllable
is uttered concerning celibacy or monasticism! Not a breath about vows
of perpetual chastity and poverty! Not a hint about confession to a
priest and human absolution! Not an allusion to penance or extreme
unction! "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all
sin."
It was well done by a poor woman who, as she lay sick, heard for the
first time the precious Gospel of her salvation. She was told that the
blood alone cleansed from sin. She believed, and then, putting her hand
into her bosom, she took out a little crucifix which she had always
worn, hanging from a chain about her neck, and said to the preacher,
"Then I don't want this, Sir." Ah, truly so! And so may we say of
everything that man has devised as a consolation to a poor wounded
spirit. "I have found Jesus and I do not want that, Sir." You who want
it, keep it–but as for us, if we walk in the light as He is in the
light–the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, so completely purges us from
all sin that we dare not look to anything else lest we come into the
bondage of the beggarly elements of this world!
You will perceive, too, that nothing is said about Christian experience
as a means of cleansing. "What?" says one. "Does not the first
sentences of the verse imply that?" Assuredly not, for you perceive
that the first sentence of the verse does not interfere, though it is
linked, with the other. If I walk in the light as God is in the light,
what then? Does my walking in the light take away my sins? Not at all!
I am as much a sinner in the light as in the darkness if it were
possible for me to be in the light without being washed in the blood.
Well, but we have fellowship with God, and does not having fellowship
with God take away sin? Beloved, do not misunderstand me! No man can
have fellowship with God unless sin is taken away–but his fellowship
with God and his walking in light, does not take away his sin–not at
all. The whole process of the removal of sin is here, "And the blood of
Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin." I beg to repeat
it–the text does not say that our walking in the light cleanses us
from sin! It does not say that our having fellowship with God cleanses
us from sin–these are the result of cleansing, but they have no
connection as cause–it is the blood and the blood alone which purges
us from sin!
The dying thief looked to Christ and sin was taken away by the blood.
And there is a Brother in Christ here who has had such an experience of
Christ's love for sixty years that his heart is now like a shock of
corn, ripe for Heaven. He lives in his Master's Presence, he spends the
most of his time in his Master's service! But, Beloved, there is not a
single atom of difference between him and the dying thief so far as the
cleansing away of sin is concerned! The blood cleansed the thief and
the same blood washes this advanced and full-grown Christian, or
otherwise he is still unclean.
Observe, yet again, that in the verse there is no hint given of any
emotions, feelings, or attainments as co-operating with the blood to
take away sin. Christ took the sins of His people and was punished for
those sins as if He had been Himself a sinner, and so sin is taken away
from us. But in no sense, degree, shape or form is sin removed by
attainments, emotions, feelings or experiences! The blood is the only
Atonement–the blood, without any mixture of anything else, completes
and finishes the work! "For you are complete in Him."
Now I could enlarge for a very long time on this point, but I do not
think I shall. I will rather throw in a sentence or two and observe
that whereas there are some who urge you to look to your doctrinal
intelligence as a ground of comfort. I beseech you Beloved, look only
to the blood! Whereas there are others who would set up a standard of
Christian experience and urge that this is to be the channel of your
consolation. I pray you, while you prize both doctrine and experience,
rest not your soul's weight but in the precious blood! Some would lead
you to high degrees of fellowship– follow them, but not when they
would lead you away from the simple position of a sinner resting upon
the blood! There are those who could teach you mysticism and would have
you rejoice in the light within. Follow them as far as they have the
warrant of God's Word, but never take your foot from that Rock of Ages
where the only safe standing can be found!
Certain of my Brethren are very fond of preaching Christ in His Second
Coming–I rejoice that they preach the truth concerning Christ
Glorified, but, my Beloved, I do beseech you do not place your hope on
Christ Glorified, nor on Christ to come, but on "Christ Crucified."
Remember that in the matter of taking away sin, the first thing is not
the Throne, but the Cross–not the reigning Savior–but the bleeding
Savior! Not the King in His Glory, but the Redeemer in His shame. Care
not to be studying dates of prophecies if burdened with sin, but seek
your chief, your best comfort in the blood of Jesus Christ which
cleanses us from all sin–here is the pole star of your salvation–sail
by it and you shall reach the port of peace.
3. A third brilliant flash in the light, viz., THE COMPLETENESS of the
cleansing. "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all
sin"–not from some sin, but "from all sin." Beloved, I cannot tell you
the exceeding sweetness of this Word, but I pray God the Holy Spirit to
give you a taste of it. There is original sin, by which we fell in Adam
before we were born, and there is inherited sin through which we were
born in sin and shapen in iniquity. There is actual sin–the sin of my
youth and my former transgressions, the sins of my riper years, the
sins which defile the hoary head and make that which should be a crown
of Glory to be a crown of grief–and all these sins, original and
actual, are all gone! All gone!
Sins against the Law, though it is exceedingly broad so that it makes
me a sinner in thought, in word, in deed, in heart–they are all gone!
Sins against the Gospel when I kicked against the pricks, when I
stifled conscience, when I resisted the Holy Spirit as did also my
fathers–when I hated the Truth of God and would not have it because my
deeds were evil and I would not come to the light lest my deeds might
be reproved. Sins when I would regard none of the sweet invitations of
the Gospel–all cleansed away! Sins against Christ Jesus since my
conversion when I have backslidden and my heart has been cold towards
Him! Sins against the Holy Spirit when I have followed my own impulses
instead of the indwelling Deity–all gone!
The Roman Catholic divides sin into venial sins and mortal sins. Be it
so–the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, mortal or
venial, deadly or pardonable. Sins of commission–here is a long
catalogue–think it over! Sins of omission–that is still a larger
list! The things which we have left undone which we ought to have done
are probably more numerous than the things which we have done which we
ought not to have done–all are gone! Some sins are greater than
others. There is no doubt whatever that adultery, fornication, murder,
blasphemy and such like are greater than the sins of daily life–but
whether they are great sins or little sins–they are all gone! That
same God who took away the plague of flies from Egypt also took away
the plague of thunder and of lightning. All are gone–gone at once!
Pharaoh's chariot is drowned in the Red Sea and the mean Egyptian is
drowned in the same way. The depths have covered them. There is not one
of them left. There are sins against God–how many there are! Sins of
breaking His Day and despising His Word–profaning His name, forgetting
Him and not loving Him–but He blots out all! Sins against my friends
and my enemies, against my neighbor, against my father, my child, my
wife–sins in all relationships–yet all are gone! Then, too, remember
there are sins of presumption and sins of ignorance–sins done
willfully and unknown sins–the blood cleanses us from ALL sin!
Shall I go on? Surely I need not! But you see the purging is complete.
Whether the bill is little or the bill is great, the same receipt can
discharge one as the other. The blood of Jesus Christ is as blessed and
Divine a payment for the sin of blaspheming Peter as it is for the sin
of loving John! Our iniquity is gone, all gone at once and all gone
forever. Blessed completeness! What a sweet theme to dwell upon!
4. The next gem that studs the text is the thought of PRESENTNESS.
"Cleanses" says the text–not, "shall cleanse." There are multitudes
who think that as a dying hope they may look forward to pardon, and
perhaps within a few hours of their dissolution they may be able to
say, "My sins are pardoned." Such can never have read God's Word, or,
if they have read it, they have read it with unbelieving eyes. Beloved,
I would not give the snap of my finger for the bare possibility of
cleansing when I come to die!
Oh how infinitely better to have cleansing now! Some imagine that a
sense of pardon is an attainment after many years of Christian
experience. For a young Christian to say, "My sins are forgiven," seems
to them to be an untimely fig, ripe too soon. But, Beloved, it is not
so. The moment a sinner trusts Jesus, that sinner is as fully forgiven
as he will be when the light of the Glory of God shall shine upon his
resurrection countenance. Beloved, forgiveness of sin is a present
thing–a privilege for this day, a joy for this very hour! And whoever
walks in the light as God is in the light has fellowship with God and
has at this moment the perfect pardon of sin.
You perceive that it is written in the present tense as if to indicate
continuance–it will always be so with you, Christian. It was so
yesterday–it was "cleanses" yesterday, it is "cleanses" today–it will
be "cleanses" tomorrow. It will be "cleanses" until you cross the
river–every day you may come to this fountain for it "cleanses!" Every
hour you may stand by its brim, for it "cleanses." I think there is
sanctification here as well as justification. I am inclined to believe
that this text has been too much limited in its interpretation and that
it signifies that the blood of Jesus is constantly operating upon the
man who walks in the light so as to cleanse him from the indwelling
power of sin.
And the Spirit of God applies the doctrine of the Atonement to the
production of purity till the soul becomes completely pure from sin at
the last. I desire to feel every day the constantly purifying effect of
the sacrifice of my Lord and Master. Look at the foot of the Cross and
I am sure you will feel that the precious drops cleanse from all sin.
5. Now in the fifth place, the text presents to us very blessedly the
thought of CERTAINTY. It is not, "perhaps the blood of Jesus Christ
cleanses from sin." The text speaks of it as a fact not to be
disputed–it does do so. To the Believer this is matter of certainty,
for the Spirit of God bears witness with our spirits that we are born
of God. Our spirit in the joy and peace which it receives through
believing becomes assured of its being cleansed, and then the Spirit of
God comes in as a second Witness and bears witness with our spirit that
we are born of God!
My being cleansed from all sin today is to me as much a matter of
consciousness as my being better in health. I was conscious of pain
when I lay on my sick bed and so, when I was living in sin, as soon as
God gave me spiritual life I was conscious that guilt lay heavily upon
me. I am conscious now of pain removed and so I am equally conscious of
sin removed–I do not hesitate to say it here, that my consciousness of
pardoned sin is at this moment as clear and as distinct as my
consciousness of removed pain while I look at Jesus Christ, my Lord, by
faith.
So is it often with the Christian. It is frequently with him a matter
of consciousness most positive and infallible that he is truly and
really cleansed from all sin by the blood of Jesus Christ! It is not
merely a matter of consciousness, but if you think of it, it is a
matter of reasoning. If Jesus Christ did, indeed, take the sins of all
who believe, then it follows, necessarily, that I, trusting in Christ,
have no longer any sin–for if Christ took my sin–sin cannot be in two
places at once! If Christ bears it, then I do not bear it. And if
Christ was punished for it, then the punishment of my sin has been
endured and I cannot be punished for the sin for which Jesus has been
punished–unless God should sovereignly punish men–which would be such
an insult to the honesty and justice of God that it must not be
tolerated for a moment in our thoughts!
If Jesus Christ has paid the debt it is paid and–
"Justice can demand no more,
Christ has paid the dreadful score."
So the Christian's being cleansed from sin becomes to him a matter of
spiritual argument–he can see it clearly and manifestly. Yet more, he
is so certain of it that it begins to operate upon him in blessed
effect. He is so sure that there is no sin laid to his door that he
draws nearer to God than a sinner, defiled with sin, may do. He enters
into that which is within the veil–he talks with God as his Father–he
claims familiar communion with the Most High God! And though God is so
great that the Heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, yet he believes
that that same God lives in his heart as in a temple! Now this he could
not feel if he did not know that sin is put away. Beloved, no man is
capable of virtue in the highest sense of the term till it is a matter
of certainty to him that his sin is cleansed.
You say, "That is a strong assertion," but I do assert it–all of you
who are doing good works with the view to saving yourselves are missing
the mark of pure virtue. You say, "Why?" The goodness of an action
depends upon its motive. Your motive is to save yourselves–that is
selfish–your action is selfish and the virtue of it has evaporated.
But the Christian, when he performs good works, does not perform them
with any view whatever of merit or self-salvation. "I am saved," he
says–"perfectly saved. I have not a sin in God's Book against me–I am
clean. Great God, before Your bar I am clean through Jesus Christ–
'Loved of my God, for Him again
With love intense I burn.'
What can I do to prove to all mankind how much, how truly I love my
God?" You see, then, that this must be a matter of certainty or else it
will never have its right effect upon you. And I pray God that you may
suck the certainty out of this text and taste its sweetness to your own
soul's inward contentment and be able to say, "Yes, without a doubt,
the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin."
6. I hope I shall not weary you, but a few words upon the sixth gem
which adorns the text, namely, the DIVINITY of it. "Where?" asks one.
Does not divinity gleam in this text? Does it not strike you that the
verse is written in a God-like style? The God-like style is very
peculiar. You can tell the style of Milton from the style of
Wordsworth, or the style of Byron. Read a verse and an educated person
knows the author by the ring of the sentences. The God-like style is
unique in its excellence. You need never put the name at the bottom
when the writing is of the Lord. You know it by the very style of it.
"Light be! Light was."
Who speaks like that but Deity? Now there is a Divine ring about this
sentence–"The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all
sin." Why, if man were talking of so great an Atonement he would fetch
a compass! He would have to go round about! We cannot afford to say
such great things as these in a few words. We must adopt some form of
speech that would allow us to extol the truth and indicate its
beauties. God seems to put away His pearls as if they were but common
pebbles. "The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all
sin"–as if it were as much a matter of every-day work as for a man to
wash his hands!
Notice the simplicity of the whole process. It does not seem to take
weeks or months–it is done at once! Slowly and by degrees is man's
action–we must lay the thing to soak, to fetch the color from it,
subject it to many processes and expose it to the wind and rain and
frost and sun before it can be cleansed. But here God speaks and it is
done! The blood comes into contact with the guilty conscience and it is
all over with sin. As if it were but a handful that moves a mountain of
sin, He takes up the isles as a very little thing. He counts great
oceans of our sin as though they were but a drop in a bucket. Believing
in Christ in a moment, by the Divine and majestic process which God has
ordained, we get the perfect cleansing of sin.
7. In the last place, just a hint upon the WISDOM of the text. What a
wise way of cleansing from sin the text speaks of! Beloved, suppose God
had devised a plan for pardoning sin which did not turn the sinner's
face to God? Then you would have a very singular spectacle–you would
have a sinner pardoned by a process which enabled him to do without his
God–and it strikes me he would be worse off than he was before! But
here, before ever the sinner can receive pardon he must say, "I will
arise and go unto my Father." And he must come closer into contact with
God than he ever came before. He must see God in the flesh of Christ
and must look to Him if he would be saved.
I do bless God that I have not to turn my face to Hell to get pardon,
but I have to turn my face towards Heaven! That seems to me to be the
wise way, for while it takes away the sin which was like a disease, it
takes away the distance from
God which was the true root of that disease. It turns the sinner's face
in the direction of holiness and bliss. Observe the benefit of this
plan of salvation in the fact that it makes the sinner feel the evil of
sin. If we were pardoned in a way which did not involve pain to
someone, we should say, "Oh, it is easy for God to forgive it." But
when I see the streaming veins of Jesus and mark the sweat of His blood
fall to the ground and hear Him cry, "They have pierced My hands and My
feet," then I understand that sin is a dreadful evil!
If a man should be pardoned without being made to feel that sin is
bitter, I do not know that he would be really any the better
off–perhaps better unpardoned than pardoned–unless he is led to hate
sin. Our gracious God has also chosen this plan of salvation with the
wise design of making man glorify God. I cannot see sin pardoned by the
substitutionary Atonement of the Lord Jesus without dedicating myself
to the praise and glory of the great God of redeeming love. It would be
a pity if man could be pardoned and afterwards could live a selfish,
thankless life, would it not? If God had devised a scheme by which sin
could be pardoned and yet the sinner live to himself, I do not know
that the world or the man would be advantaged.
But here are many birds killed with one stone, as the Proverb puts it.
Now therefore, at the foot of the Cross, the bands which bound our soul
to earth are loosened. We are strangers in the land and therefore, "God
forbid that we should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto us and we are crucified to
the world."
I leave this text with the Believer, only adding, if any of you would
have it, and joy in it, you must walk in the light. I pray God the Holy
Spirit to bring you to see the light of the Glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ! Then you will trust Him and then you shall have
fellowship with Him! And by His blood you shall be cleansed from all
sin. God bless you for Jesus' sake. Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON. -1 John 1,2:1-11.